Drakensang - Translation of Gone Gold Announcement

Peter De Jong has kindly sent us a translation into English of the announcement that Drakensang has gone Gold:

It’s time: The German version of the RPG “Das schwarze Auge: Drakensang” (Drakensang: The Dark Eye) has reached its Gold status after several years of producing and the discs are now being pressed.

Next to that Publisher dtp entertainment is comfirming August 1 2008 as the release date for Gemany, Austria and Switzerland. Exactly on the release date both the standard and the limited collector’s edition will be on the store shelves.

The standard edition, which will kost 49,99 euro (USD 79, AUD 82, GBP 40) will also contain the DSA rule book 4.0 as PDF.

Buyers of the limited collector’s edition (59,99 euro, USD 95, AUD 98, GBP 48) will receive a complete fan package: The high quality book cover, having the look of a dragon’s skin, will contain the game and several extras, and the exclusive DSA tin miniature “Lindwumtöter” (tapeworm killer), which no DSA-fan can do without and isn’t available anywhere else. Furthermore, the noble book-box contains the epic original game soundtrack by Dynamedion and the DSA audio book (on seperate discs), which will guide your leap into the Drakensang world perfectly. The fourth edition of the original DSA rule book and a leather map of the Aventurien world will make the introduction into the world of pen and paper complete, even for beginners.

Only 10.000 copies of the limited collector’s edition will be available.

Dtp entertainment AG have done their very best in creating a high-quality and authentic setting for DSA:D. As mentioned before, many of the featured characters in DSA:D will be voice acted. Some of these will be known from the voice doubling of Hollywood movies. One of those is Torsten Michaelis, who normally dubs the voiced of Wesley Sniped and Martin Lawrence in their movies.

Apart form him, Charles Rettinghaus, who is known for his dubbing of LeVar Burton in the German versions of the Star Trek movies, will make an appearance. Dietmar Wunder, the German dubbing voice of Daniel Craig (James Bond) and Adam Sandler, will be part of the Drakensang crew.

Fans of Gothic rock and medieval music also see their needs met. In DSA:D the voices of six of the most famous medieval musicians can be heard, amoung those Martina Sofie Nöth (Amber), Brandan Pötschokat, lead singer of the band Cultus Ferox, „Teufel“ (devil), lead singer of the band Tanzwut (dancing fury) and musicians from Saltatio Mortis.

In producing DSA:D dtp entertainment and developer Radon Labs are realizing exactly that game, RPG fans have been waiting for a long time. Drakensang is the first RPG system in twelve years, that makes it to a PC game.

DSA is Germany’s leading Pen and paper RPG system. The story to Drakensang was developed in coaction with DSA P&P writers, through which authenticity is guaranteed. Connoisseurs of the DSA world will feel right at home and will miss out on nothing. Thanks to the most modern technologies , the world of Aventurien is revived on the PC in breath-taking 3D graphics and a keen eye for authentic detail.

Dtp entertainment will publish DSA:D on August 1 2008.

Once again, thanks Peter for doing this.

Addendum:
A little clarification to address the discussion in the comment thread: The prices and details above are only valid for the German version. Whoever signs Drakensang for other territories will make his own decisions regarding pricing and bonus content.
At 49,99 EUR Drakensang sells for the standard retail price point for full price games in the German market. No surprise here. The Collector's Edition on the other hand is a real bargain. You'll get a lot of gimmicks for only 10 bucks more. We have seen other publishers charge twice this amount for half the content.More information.

Well, glad to be of help. I did however notice some mistakes in the text, which are caused by the umlauts of several German words. These umlauts have been replaced by some letter combinations, preceded by &. The text I sent you this afternoon should have the umlauts in place. If not, please send me a mail, so I can send you the word document I translated the German text in.

Buyers of the limited collector's edition (59,99 euro, USD 95, AUD 98, GBP 48) will receive a complete fan package: The high quality book cover, having the look of a dragon's skin, will contain the game and several extras, and the exclusive DSA tin miniature &ldquo;Lindwumt&ouml;ter&rdquo; (tapeworm killer), which no DSA-fan can do without and isn't available anywhere else. Furthermore, the noble book-box contains the epic original game soundtrack by Dynamedion and the DSA audio book (on seperate discs), which will guide your leap into the Drakensang world perfectly. The fourth edition of the original DSA rule book and a leather map of the Aventurien world will make the introduction into the world of pen and paper complete, even for beginners.

I wants this. I like audio books. No preorder yet I presume.

— “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou
"Those who dont read history are destined to repeat it."– Edmund Burke

Originally Posted by Avantenor
It's the German Limited Edition. It is limited to 10.000 copies. Amazon.de doesn't accept any further preorders, because their quota is exhausted.

Thats a bummer. The currencies fooled me - (59,99 euro, USD 95, AUD 98, GBP 48). I guess they meant to inform the australian germans how much the game costs.

— “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou
"Those who dont read history are destined to repeat it."– Edmund Burke

Originally Posted by zakhal
Thats a bummer. The currencies fooled me - (59,99 euro, USD 95, AUD 98, GBP 48). I guess they meant to inform the australian germans how much the game costs.

No, the original press release only contained the German price. No others.

So I assume that the translator "translated" these prices into USD & AUD & GBP, too.

— “ Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.“ (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

Originally Posted by Corwin
The post is a straight C&P from the email I received.

That's weird. Maybe the text box used for sending you the translation can't handle special characters. If you'd like the text as it should look, please send me an e-mail, so I can supply you with the original .doc I translated in.

@currency translation

I converted the original price in euros to other large currencies to give those not using the euro itself an idea of the price in their own currency.

I fixed the formatting of special characters and changed the English title. My C&P worked fine, no idea why Corwin's didn't…

— "Mystery is important. To know everything, to know the whole truth, is dull. There is no magic in that. Magic is not knowing, magic is wondering about what and how and where." ~ Cortez, from The Longest Journey

Maybe their big plans for internationalization have been slightly modified. If they´re back to the standard license business then whoever signs the game has to invest in marketing it.

Still not good business sense IMHO. If I had 3 RPGs in my portfolio like dtp at some time (Legend - HoG, Drakensang: TDE and Venetica (?, by Deck 13) ), I would definitely hire a full time community manager with some marketing experience, only for these games. He would earn his money back multiple times, without a doubt.

Agreed to the community manager. Either way, it doesn't take a whole lot of effort to do some English newsbits and other tidbits - the last update on the English side of the official website was April an d that was only about a new look for the website itself - nothing for the game.

I realise the old line is the publisher looks after marketing but this is the internet age.

What else is new!! Look what happened with Gothic for example!! One would think that producing a top quality and well marketed English version would be their number two priority after the getting the local version done.

The TDE licence for Drakensang has been granted exclusively to Radon Labs, not to dtp. Drakensang is a cooperation between RL and dtp. As I understand the situation, Radon Labs and dtp are more or less equal partners. Maybe that is a reason?

— “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou
"Those who dont read history are destined to repeat it."– Edmund Burke

Originally Posted by Corwin
What else is new!! Look what happened with Gothic for example!! One would think that producing a top quality and well marketed English version would be their number two priority after the getting the local version done.

PB have changed their style. Their art director gets paid to work on community development and the production of marketing material, among other things. Their MD is also quite busy posting on WoPB, probably because he is the only one not directly involved in the actual game development. Deep Silver on the other hand watches the forums but stays out of the way unless the topics refer directly to the publisher.